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Anthropic's 11 Knowledge Work Plugins for Claude Code Explained

Anthropic's 11 Knowledge Work Plugins for Claude Code Explained

Anthropic's 11 Knowledge Work Plugins for Claude Code Explained

Claude Code's plugin ecosystem has exploded. With over 9,000 plugins across ClaudePluginHub, Claude-Plugins.dev, and Anthropic's official marketplace, the challenge isn't finding plugins — it's knowing which ones are worth installing.

This guide covers Anthropic's 11 official knowledge work plugins — the ones that caused the "SaaSpocalypse" stock selloff when they launched. Built for Claude Cowork (Anthropic's agentic desktop app) and fully compatible with Claude Code, these plugins turn Claude from a general-purpose AI into a role-specific specialist. Each bundles domain expertise, slash commands, and MCP connectors into a plug-and-play package.

Productivity

Task management, workplace memory, and a visual dashboard. Claude learns your people, projects, and terminology so when you say "ask Todd to do the PSR for Oracle," it knows exactly who, what, and which deal. Uses a markdown-based task system (TASKS.md) with a two-tier memory architecture that persists context across sessions.

Key commands: /start, /update Connectors: Slack, Notion, Asana, Linear, Jira, Monday, ClickUp, Microsoft 365

Sales

Full sales cycle support: prospect research, call prep, pipeline management, outreach drafting, and competitive intelligence. Works standalone with web search or supercharged with CRM connections.

Key commands: /call-summary, /forecast, /pipeline-review Connectors: Slack, HubSpot, Close, Clay, ZoomInfo, Notion, Jira, Fireflies, Microsoft 365

Customer Support

Ticket triage with structured categorization (P1-P4), response drafting, escalation packaging, and knowledge base article generation from resolved issues.

Key commands: /triage, /research, /draft-response, /escalate, /kb-article Connectors: Slack, Intercom, HubSpot, Guru, Jira, Notion, Microsoft 365

Product Management

Feature specs, roadmap planning, stakeholder updates, user research synthesis, competitive analysis, and metrics tracking. Supports RICE, MoSCoW, and multiple roadmap formats.

Key commands: /write-spec, /roadmap-update, /stakeholder-update, /synthesize-research, /competitive-brief, /metrics-review Connectors: Slack, Linear, Asana, Monday, ClickUp, Jira, Notion, Figma, Amplitude, Pendo, Intercom, Fireflies

Marketing

Content creation, campaign planning, brand voice enforcement, competitive analysis, SEO audits, and performance reporting across all content formats.

Key commands: /draft-content, /campaign-plan, /brand-review, /seo-audit, /email-sequence, /competitive-brief, /performance-report Connectors: Slack, Canva, Figma, HubSpot, Amplitude, Notion, Ahrefs, SimilarWeb, Klaviyo

Legal

Contract review against your organization's playbook, NDA triage (GREEN/YELLOW/RED classification), compliance workflows, and templated responses. Configurable risk tolerances and negotiation positions.

Key commands: /review-contract, /triage-nda, /vendor-check, /brief, /respond Connectors: Slack, Box, Egnyte, Jira, Microsoft 365

Finance

Month-end close, journal entry preparation, account reconciliation, financial statements, variance analysis, and SOX audit testing.

Key commands: /journal-entry, /reconciliation, /income-statement, /variance-analysis, /sox-testing Connectors: Snowflake, Databricks, BigQuery, Slack, Microsoft 365

Data

SQL query writing, data exploration, visualization, interactive HTML dashboards, and pre-share validation. Works with any SQL dialect and any data warehouse.

Key commands: /analyze, /explore-data, /write-query, /create-viz, /build-dashboard, /validate Connectors: Snowflake, Databricks, BigQuery, Hex, Amplitude, Jira

Enterprise Search

One query across all your company's tools — email, chat, docs, wikis, CRMs, project trackers. Synthesizes results with source attribution.

Key commands: /search, /digest Connectors: Slack, Notion, Guru, Jira, Asana, Microsoft 365

Bio-Research

Connects to 10+ preclinical research tools: PubMed, bioRxiv, ChEMBL, Open Targets, ClinicalTrials.gov, Benchling, BioRender, and more. Includes skills for single-cell RNA QC, scvi-tools deep learning, Nextflow bioinformatics pipelines, and scientific problem selection.

Cowork Plugin Management

A meta-plugin for creating and customizing new plugins for your organization's specific workflows.

Installing the Knowledge Work Plugins

Or install from claude.com/plugins in Claude Cowork.

How Plugins Actually Work (Architecture)

Whether official or community-built, all Claude Code plugins follow the same structure:

plugin-name/
├── .claude-plugin/plugin.json   # Manifest
├── .mcp.json                    # Tool connections (MCP servers)
├── commands/                    # Slash commands you invoke explicitly
└── skills/                      # Domain knowledge Claude uses automatically

A plugin can contain any combination of:

  • Skills — Markdown files encoding domain expertise. Claude activates them automatically when relevant.
  • Commands — Explicit slash commands (e.g., /sales:call-prep).
  • Subagents — Specialized AI agents for specific tasks (e.g., security auditor, frontend developer).
  • MCP Servers — Connections to external services via the Model Context Protocol.
  • Hooks — Automation that triggers on events (e.g., scanning file edits for security issues).

Everything is file-based — markdown and JSON. No code compilation, no infrastructure, no build steps. If you can write a README, you can build a plugin.

The Bigger Picture

The most significant thing about Anthropic's knowledge work plugins isn't the plugins themselves — it's the architecture. Skills as composable markdown. Connectors via MCP. Everything file-based and forkable. This is the pattern that makes AI tools genuinely customizable for how your team actually works, not how a product manager imagined you might work.

These 11 plugins cover the major business functions, but they're designed to be extended. Fork a plugin, add your company's specific workflows, connect your internal tools via MCP, and you have a custom AI specialist that understands your domain.

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Article Details

  • AuthorProtomota
  • Published OnFebruary 5, 2026
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